Why do some materials carry electrical currents without any resistance only when cooled to near absolute zero while others do so at comparatively high temperatures? This key question continues to vex scientists studying the phenomenon of superconductivity. Now a team of researchers from Andrea Cavalleri's group at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Hamburg has provided evidence that electron "stripes" in certain copper-based compounds may lead to a break in the material's crystal symmetry, which persists even in their superconducting state. Their work has been published in PNAS.
